Conceived in 1998 by Francesco Izzo and Gian Franco Grechi, promoted by the association of the Friends of Leonardo Sciascia together with the “Achille Bertarelli” Civic Collection of Prints and the Municipal Library of Milan, the LEONARDO SCIASCIA AMATEUR D'ESTAMPES AWARD is an international competition, every two years, set up to commemorate the attention paid by the writer Leonardo Sciascia to the original engraving.

The exhibition of the works in competition is itinerant, according to a path aimed at giving the maximum possible visibility to the invited artists, to allow the general public to discover the engraving as well. At the end of each exhibition cycle, the public award ceremony takes place at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. All the works in competition finally become part of the patrimony of the Achille Bertarelli Civic Collection of Prints for which the Friends of Sciascia were awarded the title of Benefactor of the city by the municipal administration. 

The Prize, by invitation, is awarded every two years to the work of an engraver selected by a jury of nine artists all particularly appreciated by Sciascia. From this edition, the tenth, the great French engraver Érik Desmazières succeeds the late Piero Guccione as Honorary President of the jury composed of Carla Horat, Edo Janich, Giuseppe Modica, Krysztof Skórczewski, Roberto Stelluti, Evan Summer, Gaetano Tranchino. Previously, Luisa Adorno, Eduardo Arroyo, Bruno Caruso, Rodolfo Ceccotti, Domenico Faro, Federica Galli, Gian Franco Grechi and Nunzio Gulino took turns in the post.