Retired tycoon Ed Bazinet, 68, spent $39.4m at an event in Paris last month
Businessman 'had a manic episode' and spent $1.6m on soap
Designer 'cut him off' after he bought $200,000 of cake platters
A business tycoon who spent $20 million on luxury gifts - including $1.6million on soap - has been taken to hospital after concerns over the state of his mental health.
Ed Bazinet, 68, raced around the booths at the International Gift Fair in the Javits Center, New York, buying up everything he could lay his hands on.
Last month, sources said he spent $39.4 million at a similar event in Paris.
The huge sums of money that Mr Bazinet was spending left friends alarmed and he was taken to hospital yesterday, the New York Post said.
The tycoon had a manic episode and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a spokeswoman told gawker.com.
He placed orders between $200,000 to £2million on a variety of items.
The New York International Gift Fair takes place twice a year and the latest winter exhibition was attended by 28,000 stall holders and 35,000 visitors.
Most of the products are homeware and trinkets, ranging from kitsch pots and pans to luxury toiletries and expensive textiles.
Word quickly spread around the fair about the enormous sums of money Mr Bazinet was shelling out.
Designer Nima Oberoi told the Post: 'He’d just say, ''Give me 1,000 of this and 1,000 of that!''
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'I feel awful for him; there was clearly something going on.'
The designer cut him off after he spent $200,000 on cake platters. Over at the elizabethW stand, Mr Bazinet ordered $1.6 million of soap, sachets and hanger covers, amounting to 96,000 items, sources said.
The company, which sells handcrafted bedroom linens and toiletries, was unavailable for comment when contacted by MailOnline.
However one vendor told gawker.com that Mr Bazinet's assistants 'were cancelling all the orders'.
Mr Bazinet, who is originally from Minnesota, started his career making flower arrangements and is now reportedly worth $100million.
He made his fortune selling porcelain Snow-baby figurines and miniature ceramic villages after seeing the lucrative market in mail-order trinkets.
He’d just say, 'Give me 1,000 of this and 1,000 of that!'
Nima Oberoi, designer at the gift fair
In the mid-Nineties, he sold his company Department 56 for $270 million. The firm deals mainly in hand-crafted collectables and holiday decorations.
It was best known for coming up with the original Snow Village scenes in the 1970s - hand-painted, ceramic models depicting winter scenes of small town America.
The multimillionaire reportedly never understood why people liked the trinkets and would stamp fan letters to him, 'get a life', according to a 2007 article.
Mr Bazinet has a lavish, 10,00 square-foot Tribeca penthouse worth $28 million which has 19 rooms, five floors, four terraces, sweeping spiral staircases and is filled with modern art. There is also a private roof garden and rooftop gym.
The main bedroom takes up a full floor and has a fireplace, bathrooms, skylit walk-in closet and a separate Jacuzzi room, according to Luxist.com.
The penthouse also boasts a 1,000-bottle wine storage, stainless steel and glass spiral staircase and private elevator connecting the floors. There is also a media room and large library.
Mr Bazinet also co-owns a Gulfstream jet.
In a 2007 book, Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, Mr Bazinet told the author that he didn't want to live such a lavish lifestyle and was trying to sell his penthouse.
He said: 'It's not comfortable. Sometimes you don't know until you're living in a space. But this feels too big for two people.
'It's great when you have people for a party. But upstairs it feels like a big fishbowl with just a few people.'
According to the New York Sun in 2008, Mr Bazinet shares his New York penthouse with his partner, a Belgian photographer, and two rare breeds of cat.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2101656/Ed-Bazinet-multimillionairem-taken-mental-hospital-blowing-20m-trinkets-New-York-gift-fair.html#ixzz1mXtAIusj
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