But Professor Sir George Alberti, the government's emergency care tsar, claimed most of the care offered was of a "high standard".

BBC: Concerns over emergency NHS care

Emergency care tsar Sir George Alberti likes telling a story about how he was once bitten by a farm dog while walking in the Lake District.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Setting out the case for change

The man who ultimately did, Charles Babbage, was as much the Renaissance man as Alberti--he also invented the speedometer, the cowcatcher and the mortality tables that are the basis of today's life insurance.

FORBES: I've got a secret

Reached for comment about the sale, Mr. Bailey remembers the Christie's painting fondly and notes that the correct title of the painting is "Via Alberti, " for the 15th century Italian scholar whom he greatly admires.

FORBES: Embracing Stillness

The 15th-century Florentine Leon Battista Alberti was a ridiculously gifted painter, composer, poet and philosopher--not to mention the author of the first scientific analysis of perspective, a treatise on the housefly and a eulogy for his dog.

FORBES: I've got a secret