Thieves return Lupita Nyong'o's $150,000 Oscars dress 'after realising the pearls on it were fake'

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Thieves have returned a dress worn by the actress Lupita Nyong’o after apparently realising the pearls adorning it were fake.

When Ms Nyong’o wore the gown to Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony it was reported that the dress had 6,000 real Akoya cultured pearls sewn into it and was worth $150,000.

But the dress was stolen from the actress’s hotel room on Wednesday.

In a twist, the celebrity news website TMZ says the thief took two pearls from the dress to Los Angeles’s garment district to have them analysed.

The website was tipped off about the dress’s location after it was left in a rubbish bag in a bathroom at the London West Hollywood hotel, it said.

A spokesperson for the LA county sheriff’s department said the authorities were “in the process of confirming” the story.

They said the dress found at the hotel did resemble the one stolen from Ms Nyong’o.

Authorities may be investigating the possibility that the dress was swapped for a copy with fake pearls, and that the original is still out there.

Lupita Nyong’o is a Mexican-Kenyan actress and director who attended university in the United States.

Her filmography includes 2013 blockbuster 12 Years a Slave, a performance for which she won 2014 Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards.

She is set to appear in the upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.