Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o wore a beautiful, “supposedly” pearl-encrusted dress to this year’s Academy Awards.

Check out the incredible beading on the @CalvinKlein dress on @Lupita_Nyongo, amazing! #Oscars2015 pic.twitter.com/M7Reh9E6cb

— DailyFrontRow® (@DailyFrontRow) February 23, 2015

Unfortunately, it wasn’t just admired by spectators and fashion-watchers across the world. In fact, the dress was so admired that it went missing from her hotel room, purportedly stolen. Then, even more strangely, it reappeared, in the same hotel, under a bathroom sink.

The dress was a Calvin Klein creation, and is estimated to have cost $150,000, although it could have been worth even more on the black market. Originally, the dress was reported as being covered in real pearls, specifically 6,000 real Akoya cultured pearls. But now there’s speculation that they may have been fake. In fact, a Calvin Klein representative has essentially denied that the dress was encrusted with real pearls, questioning, “Do they really make dresses out of real jewels since Cleopatra died?”

The fact that the pearls were not actually real may have been what led to the thieves returning the dress. According to a TMZ report a source told them:

A guy called us at around 2:30 PM Friday and said he had taken the dress from Lupita’s hotel room after he noticed the door was ajar. He said he and others took two pearls off of the dress and took them to the garment district in downtown L.A. … where they were told they weren’t real.

The dress was then reported stolen on Wednesday by Nyong’o. According to TMZ, that makes sense as well:

The thief says he decided to take the dress back to London in a garment bag that was inside a trash bag that he deposited in a second floor bathroom adjacent to a fitness center.

TMZ apparently then tipped off the police, who reported finding the garment bag where the thieves claimed they left it. Although it hasn’t been confirmed that it’s the same dress, the sheriff’s department said it “resembled the one” Nyong’o wore. The sheriff’s department is working to make sure that it is, in fact, the same dress.

Either way, the police have said they’ll keep looking into the theft. Regardless of whether the pearls were real or fake, a crime clearly occurred.

Both Nyong’o and Calvin Klein seem to be glad to have the dress back in safe hands. Clavin Klein Women’s Creative Director Francisco Costa stated:

All of us at Calvin Klein are thrilled to know that the dress has potentially been located. This was an amazing collaboration between the brand and Lupita and the dress looked truly exquisite on her. Once it’s returned to us, we will be able to have the dress restored and archived, as it now represents an important moment for the brand.

While this entire story seems weird–it’s unclear why, exactly, the thieves didn’t just ditch the dress when they found out it wasn’t real–it’s good the dress is back in the right hands.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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