Thief returns Lupita Nyong'o's stolen pearl-studded Oscar gown claiming the $150K Oscar gown as ''fake''

A dress that strongly resembles the custom gown taken from Lupita Nyong'o's hotel room earlier this week has been recovered, a sheriff's official said on Friday.

Los Angeles sheriff's spokeswoman Nicole Nishida says the dress found on Friday afternoon at a West Hollywood hotel 'greatly resembles' the pearl-adorned Calvin Klein Collection by Francisco Costa dress Nyong'o wore to Sunday's Academy Awards. 

She says detectives are attempting to verify the recovered dress is the same one Nyong'o wore.

'We do have possession of a dress that greatly reassembles the dress that was stolen but I don't think at this time we can 100 percent say it's that dress, but it greatly resembles it,' Nishida said.

One of the actress' representatives reported the dress was stolen from Nyong'o's room at the London Hotel in West Hollywood late Wednesday. Authorities said it could have been taken during a broad time frame earlier in the day.

Authorities placed its value at $150,000, although experts say it could have fetched more on the black market.

The recovery of the dress was first reported by celebrity website TMZ, which wrote in a post that a person claiming to have taken the gown gave them information about where to find the dress.According to TMZ:

 Lupita Nyong'o's Oscar gown was returned to The London West Hollywood Friday afternoon where it was taken 2 days earlier ... and the thief called TMZ to tell us where it could be found and added it was a worthless fake.

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 2 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 thief says he decided to take the dress back to the London in a garment bag that was inside a trash bag that he deposited in a 2nd floor bathroom adjacent to a fitness center.
We contacted the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. and gave them the info. They went over to the hotel and retrieved the bag and they found a garment bag with the dress inside

The dress recovered on Friday afternoon was found in an abandoned bathroom at the London Hotel, sheriff's officials wrote in a press release.

The 31-year-old actress has become a darling of Hollywood's red carpets in the past two years, with commenters and fans praising her fashion choices. She accessorized the dress with Chopard diamond drop earrings and three Chopard diamond rings.

Before the awards ceremony, Nyong'o told The Associated Press on the red carpet, 'I'm just wearing my diamonds and pearls. My homage to Prince,' referring to a popular song by the musician.

'There are a lot of collectors out there who are very private and have private collections of stolen merchandise,' said style expert and fashion commentator Mary Alice Stephenson. 'Some of these dresses have global fame as big as any Van Gogh.'  

On Wednesday the actress shared a timelapse video of her pre-Oscars prep which shows her with her style team in her hotel room getting her glammed up before the big event.

And the morning after the Oscars, Lupita shared a snap of her beautiful accessories she'd worn for the night and captioned: 'That was cool! #Oscars 2015 #DiamondsAndPearls'

Laid out on top of her frock were some stunning Chopard jewels and satin Nicholas Kirkwood heels alongside a silver box clutch. 

Lupita returned to the Oscars after winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress last year for her work in 12 Years A Slave. 

'This year the pressure's off,' Lupita told E! host Ryan Seacrest during the E! red carpet show. She added: I can just dress up and enjoy the show' 

The actress was recently attached to the film Queen Of Katwe based on the true story of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi.