  We report 0.8-4.5 micron SpeX spectroscopy of the narrow-line Seyfert 1
galaxy Mrk1239. The spectrum is outstanding because the nuclear continuum
emission in the near-infrared is dominated by a strong bump of emission peaking
at 2.2 micron, with a strength not reported before in an AGN. A comparison of
the Mrk1239 spectrum to that of Ark564 allowed us to conclude that the
continuum is strongly reddened by E(B-V)=0.54. The excess of emission,
confirmed by aperture photometry and additional NIR spectroscopy, follows a
simple blackbody curve at T=1200 K. This suggest that we may be observing
direct evidence of dust heated near to the sublimation temperature, likely
produced by the putative torus of the unification model. Although other
alternatives are also plausible, the lack of star formation, the strong
polarization and low extinction derived for the emission lines support the
scenario where the hot dust is located between the narrow line region and the
broad line region.
