"Arturo Magni's association with high-performance motorcycles, and particularly with the fabled MV Agusta name, runs deep, making his relative obscurity something of a puzzler. Operating from a modest two-story building in Samarate, Italy, just a few miles northeast of Milan, Arturo and son Giovanni, produce hand built, race-quality bikes for a privileged few - and have been doing so for the past 30 years."

Born in 1925, Arturo Magni was hired by MV founder Count Domenico Agusta to be chief mechanic for MV's struggling race team. At MV, Arturo eventually assumed total responsibility for the company's race efforts, making MV a dominant force on the track. It was Arturo who helped turn MV's four-cylinder race bikes into world championship machines, first in the hands of rider John Surtees in 1956 and then again in 1958 - and for the next 17 years, until MV finally lost out to the financial and technical prowess of the Japanese."

"Arturo started his shop after MV shuttered its race program in 1976, at first producing his own custom-framed MV using customer bikes and, later, engines left over from the end of MV production. Hallmarks of a Magni MV include an MV race-style frame, a Magni dry clutch and a Magni chain-drive conversion. As the supply of available MVs dried up, Arturo transitioned with Honda, BMW, and then Moto Guzzi engines to power his creations." Taken from Richard Backus' account, Motorcycle Classics, August 2011.

In 1985 Magni started a relationship with Moto Guzzi. His first effort was the Le Mans with his own rear parallelogrammo suspension that eliminated the shaft drive reactions inherent in that design. For 1987, there were the retro-look Classico and Arturo 1000s; for 1989 the Sfida 1000; and for 1990 a "twins class Daytona 4-valve road racer using contemporary technology. Such is the level of success for one racer, Owen Coles, the bike entered by the Australian importer Ted Stolarski in races in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, that Magni names the subsequent production model demanded by Stolarski, the "Australia." Production began in 1993 of a 2-valve, carburetor model of which 75 were manufactured; in 1998 a 4-valve, 102 horsepower model, this time with Weber-Marelli fuel injection, a revised chassis (the steering head angle was 24 degrees), and re-named the Australia 98. Only 50 were made.

This bike has only 127 miles on the odometer. It was brought into the USA by Christopher Garville of Commerce Overseas Corp. of Hawthorne, New York, formerly the importer of MV Agusta street bikes, then working with the Magnis. Peter Egan in Cycle World reported, "This is a hard-edged bike of balanced aesthetics for those who have lived long enough to see a hundred pointless fashions come and go." In the bike's history file is a letter dated June 1, 1998 stating that the seller is the "first customer of a Magni Australia imported by Commerce..." obviously in reference to this bike.

In November 2004 the bike was sent to Manley Cycle in Minneapolis, then specialists in dyno tuning. After 11 hours of fettling the bike left in great running order and has been maintained that way ever since although it has covered few miles.