  We report the results of a 3 year-long dedicated monitoring campaign of a
restless Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) in NGC 7259. The object, named SN 2009ip,
was observed photometrically and spectroscopically in the optical and
near-infrared domains. We monitored a number of erupting episodes in the past
few years, and increased the density of our observations during eruptive
episodes. In this paper we present the full historical data set from 2009-2012
with multi-wavelength dense coverage of the two high luminosity events between
August - September 2012. We construct bolometric light curves and measure the
total luminosities of these eruptive or explosive events. We label them the
2012a event (lasting ~50 days) with a peak of 3x10^41 erg/s, and the 2012b
event (14 day rise time, still ongoing) with a peak of 8x10^42 erg/s. The
latter event reached an absolute R-band magnitude of about -18, comparable to
that of a core-collapse supernova (SN). Our historical monitoring has detected
high-velocity spectral features (~13000 km/s) in September 2011, one year
before the current SN-like event. This implies that the detection of such high
velocity outflows cannot, conclusively, point to a core-collapse SN origin. We
suggest that the initial peak in the 2012a event was unlikely to be due to a
faint core-collapse SN. We propose that the high intrinsic luminosity of the
latest peak, the variability history of SN 2009ip, and the detection of broad
spectral lines indicative of high-velocity ejecta are consistent with a
pulsational pair-instability event, and that the star may have survived the
last outburst. The question of the survival of the LBV progenitor star and its
future fate remain open issues, only to be answered with future monitoring of
this historically unique explosion.
