Neville Tuli is the Founder Chairman of the "Osian’s" Group of companies. The Group includes the Parent Company, "Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art Pvt. Ltd." and its two Subsidiary Companies, being "Osian’s Cinematic Pvt. Ltd." and "Osianama Learning Experience Pvt. Ltd.".
Also see Osian art fund scam Little is known of Tuli's background except for what he claimed in interviews. He was born in India and subsequently underwent graduation from LSE in London. Thereafter, in interviews, he admitted to having learnt little in college and more at Ladbrokes where he gambled on horses, and also learnt more of the operations of binary networking and MLM schemes. Tuli returned to India in 1993 and found an opportunity to cash in on the yet unexplored Indian art market. In 1996, Tuli established a trust called "HEART" as a trust that would serve as an umbrella for the shell companies that he subsequently created for people to invest in art, Its stated aim was "to help build a quality-conscious infrastructure for the Indian fine arts". In 1997 he wrote a book The Flamed Mosaic: Indian Contemporary Painting, on the aesthetics and history of Indian Modern & Contemporary Painting. In the same year, he helped organise an arts festival in Mumbai called "The Intuitive-logic: A Festival of Indian Contemporary Painting" mostly using donations from wealthy patrons and the existing funds of his Heart trust. Seeing a need and an opportunity in the recently opened up wealthy Indian upper class, Tuli began to create an art auction house and in October 1997, held the first large scale an art auction in India under the banner of "The Intuitive-logic II". The auction established record prices for many artists including Raja Ravi Varma whose painting fetched Rs. 32 lacs, the highest price ever for a modern Indian painting. The catalogue published by them also set new standards for prices of art, documentation and design. Thus Osian's began to hold regular art auctions since 2000 as well as playing a role in deciding the prices for works of art, often through Tuli's own books and catalogues. Osian's has held over 40 Auctions during the past two decades. It also began an "International quality Auctions and Art Advisory Services" in 2001 to generate the finance to support Osian’s work. this subsequently morphed into one of the many shell companies operating under the Osian group's banner. In 2002, a sensational new market and awareness for the popular arts, especially film memorabilia was created when it was placed on the same platform as Indian contemporary arts with the auction – A Historical Mela: The ABC of India. Subsequently, Neville Tuli acquired Cinefan and Cinemaya, the world’s first journal exclusively dedicated to Asian Cinema, in 2004, to broaden its cinema-infrastructure base and to complement its vast cinema archives. The Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival of Indian, Asian & Arab Cinema held in New Delhi now features on the InternationalFilm Festivals Calendar. In a bid to gain publicity, Osian’s collaborated with the football tournamentDurand Cup in 2007. In 2008, the SEBI commenced litigation against osian due to its not having filed any papers for the art fund. In 2011, as investors from India and Dubai realized that they would not get their promised returns and were in danger of losing their principal, they started to file suits against Osian's art fund in Mumbai and in London.
Post Osian art fund
As the art fund continued to come across financial difficulties and litigations due to an inability to give its investors the promised returns, Tuli moved over to other means. In 2013, he organized an auction of sports memorabilia, mostly related to cricket in Mumbai. In 2013 Tuli and Osian’s launched a website called osianama.com, containing information on Indian art along with a special search engine meant for Indian art. In 2014, he organized an exhibition and auction of artworks of Indian & Asian arts, antiquities, books, prints, photographs and film memorabilia, which had been inspired by animals. As of 2017, Osian's continues to function through its New Delhi office.
Exhibitions curated by Neville Tuli
1997, Intuitive Logic: A Festival of Indian Modern & Contemporary Painting, Mumbai.
