To date, more than 40,000 visitors have seen the “Da Vinci – The Genius” exhibition at the Science Center of Iowa.

Now, a few more will have the opportunity.

The Science Center announced yesterday that it will keep the Da Vinci exhibition open through March 20. It was originally scheduled to close on Jan. 16.

The 14,000-square-foot exhibition features a number of full-scale machine inventions crafted from Leonardo da Vinci’s personal notebooks, as well as reproductions of his Renaissance art including the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.  

The exhibition is at its last stop in North America. The Des Moines stop, sponsored by Kemin Industries Inc., opened on Oct. 2.

“We thought it was a really great opportunity to extend the exhibition. We were having really great success with it,” said Chris Beck, director of marketing at the Science Center. “The exhibition also felt like we were having success with it, so we wanted to be able to extend that, which would also allow some lead time before it goes outside the United States.”

Beck said the Science Center didn’t have to pay extra to extend the exhibition.