  We use mid-infrared spectral decomposition to separate the 6micron
mid-infrared AGN continuum from the host emission in the ISO low resolution
spectra of 71 active galaxies and compare the results to observed and intrinsic
2-10keV hard X-ray fluxes from the literature. We find a correlation between
mid-infrared luminosity and absorption corrected hard X-ray luminosity, but the
scatter is about an order of magnitude, significantly larger than previously
found with smaller statistics. Main contributors to this scatter are likely
variations in the geometry of absorbing dust, and AGN variability in
combination with non-simultaneous observations. There is no significant
difference between Type 1 and Type 2 objects in the average ratio of
mid-infrared and hard X-ray emission, a result which is not consistent with the
most simple version of a unified scheme in which an optically and geometrically
thick torus dominates the mid-infrared AGN continuum. Most probably,
significant non-torus contributions to the AGN mid-IR continuum are masking the
expected difference between the two types of AGN.
