L.A. producer Tim Bui (left) and Galatea Chi Huynh at the FWAB Auction.
The first white South Sea and Coral Galatea Mercy Pearl™ was auctioned on Thursday night, December 10, 2009, at Friends Without a Border’s First Annual Los Angeles Gala at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood, CA. The 11 mm. pearl, set in a 14k yellow gold and diamond Mermaid pendant, fetched $3,000. The purchaser was Tim Bui, a film producer from Los Angeles.
The pearl is the first from Galatea: Jewelry by Artist’s new pearl farming venture in Vietnam. All proceeds from the auction benefit the Angkor Hospital for Children in Cambodia.
The December 10th Friends Without a Border auction’s star-studded committee included Ali Larter, Anne Hathaway, Eva Longoria Parker and Molly Sims. The Angkor Children’s Hospital, which has provided care for over three quarters of a million children since its founding in 1999, also reaches hundreds of thousands of children and their families in the country’s rural villages. It is the second largest HIV/AIDS facility in Cambodia and is entirely dependent upon donations for operational expenses.
The Galatea Mercy Pearl, a patented pearl that has been called the most significant development in pearl farming in over 100 years, reveals dramatic flashes of its center gemstone bead through its hand-carved nacre or coating. This most recent crop of rare Mercy pearls has been grown in the Pinctada maxima oyster at Galatea’s pearl farm located in Vietnam’s southern coastal growing region. This first harvest shows pearls that are large in size (averaging between 9.5 and 14 mm.) with lustrous white and creamy yellow nacre.
For additional information, interviews with Chi Huynh or for additional high-resolution images, please contact Barbara Moss at 862-596-8000 or by email at americanwillow@
About Galatea: Jewelry by Artist: Chi Huynh is the founder and creative force behind Galatea of San Dimas, California. A painter, poet and humanitarian, Huynh founded the company in 1994. He learned the jewelry trade by apprenticing for his father, one of Viet Nam’s most respected jewelers. Today, Galatea manufactures both in the U.S. and Viet Nam and sells to approximately 1500 retail jewelers throughout the United States. The company also has distribution in both Europe and Asia. For additional information about Galatea, the Galatea Mercy Pearl or Galatea Diamond in a Pearl collections, please visit the website at http://www.galateausa.com.
Friends Without A Border is a not-for-profit corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, and supports Angkor Hospital for Children, a leading pediatric hospital providing medical care to children in Cambodia. On average 400 children and their families arrive at the hospital daily. Since opening in 1999, AHC has provided over 690,000 pediatric treatments, and has been recognized by the Ministry of Health as an official teaching hospital, having trained thousands of healthcare and NGO workers throughout Cambodia and beyond.
