Lupita Nyong'o's $150,000 Oscars dress: Is there a point to steal something if it can't be sold or seen ever again?

Wearing a dress worth almost Rs 1 crore to the Oscars requires considerable gumption — imagine if the hem gets snagged on stilettos or doused in champagne — but stealing it shows stupidity. It is incomprehensible why anyone would want to swipe the custom-made Calvin Klein gown that last year's awardee Lupita Nyong'o wore for this year's ceremony from her hotel room the day after, especially since it had 6,000 natural pearls sowed into it. The police must be debating whether to deem it a jewellery heist — therefore, possibly worthy of a future film — or just a case of clothes theft.

Of course, it must be insured but with some pearl retailers reckoning the actual value of the dress to be in millions of dollars rather than the reported $150,000, Nyong’o’s carelessness is rather incomprehensible. But what the thief intends to do with it is the most puzzling of all. Given its one-of-a-kind tag, the gown cannot be seen in public again — say, draped on a billionaire’s arm candy a decade later — for fear of inevitable questions of provenance. Even knockoffs will always run the risk of being impounded. But the very idea of the creation being hacked to shreds and its individual pearls sold off will surely send frissons of horror down the spines of fashionistas everywhere. Hopefully, it will be recovered intact and unharmed.