  The VLT on Cerro Paranal was used to observe four fields located at 2.3' from
the center of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6712 in the V and R bands. The
resulting color-magnitude diagram shows a well defined main sequence reaching
down to the 5 sigma detection limit at V~25, R~23.5 or approximately 4 mag
below the main sequence turn-off, the deepest obtained so far on this cluster.
This yields a main sequence luminosity function that peaks at M_R~4.5 and drops
down to the 50% completeness limit at M_R~8.5. Transformation to a mass
function via the latest mass-luminosity relation appropriate to this object
indicates that the peak of the luminosity function corresponds to ~0.75 Msolar,
a value significantly higher than the ~0.25 Msolar measured for most other
clusters observed so far. Since this object, in its Galactic orbit, penetrates
very deeply into the Galactic bulge with perigalactic distance of ~0.3 kpc,
this result is the first strong evidence that tidal forces have stripped this
cluster of a substantial portion of its lower mass star population all the way
down to its half-light radius and possibly beyond.
