The optical spectra of NGC 3599 indicate that it is a low-luminosity Seyfert/low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) with L bol ∼ 10 40 erg s −1. NGC 3599 could be one of the first identified examples of such an event.

Recent relativistic simulations indicate that the majority of disruptions will actually take months or years to rise to a peak, which will then be maintained for longer than previously thought. This removes the possibility that the flare was caused by a classical, fast-rising, short-peaked, tidal disruption event. We present unpublished data from a tidal disruption candidate in NGC 3599 which show that the galaxy was already X-ray bright 18 months before the measurement which led to its classification.