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We argue that the `changing look' AGN recently reported by LaMassa et al.could be a luminous flare produced by the tidal disruption of a super-solarmass star passing just a few gravitational radii outside the event horizon of a$\sim 10^8 M_{\odot}$ nuclear black hole. This flare occurred in a massive,star forming galaxy at redshift $z=0.312$, robustly characterized thanks torepeated late-time photometric and spectroscopic observations. By takingdifference-photometry of the well sampled multi-year SDSS Stripe-82light-curve, we are able to probe the evolution of the nuclear spectrum overthe course of the outburst. The tidal disruption event (TDE) interpretation isconsistent with the very rapid rise and the decay time of the flare, whichdisplays an evolution consistent with the well-known $t^{-5/3}$ behaviour (witha clear superimposed re-brightening flare). Our analysis places constraints onthe physical properties of the TDE, such as the putative disrupted star's massand orbital parameters, as well as the size and temperature of the emittingmaterial. The properties of the broad and narrow emission lines observed in twoepochs of SDSS spectra provide further constraints on the circum-nuclearstructure, and could be indicative that the system hosted a moderate-luminosityAGN as recently as a few $10^4$ years ago, and is likely undergoing residualaccretion as late as ten years after peak, as seen from the broad H$\alpha$emission line. We discuss the complex interplay between tidal disruption eventsand gas accretion episodes in galactic nuclei, highlighting the implicationsfor future TDE searches and for estimates of their intrinsic rates.

A tidal disruption flare in a massive galaxy? Implications for the fuelling mechanisms of nuclear black holes