Following the enormous success of the Homo sapiens. The great story of human diversity and of the Guggenheim Collection: The American Avant-Garde 1945–1980 exhibitions, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni will be staying open, for the very first time, on Monday (normally its weekly day off) from 10 am to 8 pm, from 12 March to 6 May 2012.

So now there's no excuse for missing the two stunning shows – one scientific and the other exploring contemporary art – both of which offer you a riveting experience of full immersion in their subject thanks to their no-frills clarity, their accuracy and the care with which they have been prepared and the exhibits have been chosen.

According to the decription formulated by curator Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza, Homo sapiens. The great story of human diversity is "the exhibition that shows you everything history and geography can teach you on what you've always wanted to know about the world you live in, and even about your own selves".

Thanks to a series of fantastic loans from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Guggenheim Collection: The American Avant-Garde 1945–1980 offers Romans and tourists alike a chance to admire the masterpieces of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol, to mention but a few of the over fifty artists whose work features in the exhibition.

And that's not all.  In the Palazzo's "Fountain" area, for which there is no admission charge, National Geographic Italia is pleased to offer visitors, from 10 March to 13 May, a journey in pictures through the most important values shared by billions of human beings, and by other inhabitants of the planet too!  This fascinating photographic journey comprises four "legs":  Love, Work, Peace and Health