We present the XMM-Newton spectra of three low-redshift intermediate Seyferts ( one Sy1.5 , and two Sy1.8 ) , from our survey of hard spectrum Rosat sources .
The three AGN are well fitted by absorbed powerlaws , with intrinsic nuclear photoelectric absorption from column densities between 1.3 and 4.0 \times 10 ^ { 21 } cm ^ { -2 } .
In the brightest object the X–ray spectrum is good enough to show that the absorber is not significantly ionized .
For all three objects the powerlaw slopes appear to be somewhat flatter ( \Gamma \sim 1.3 - 1.6 ) than those found in typical unabsorbed Seyferts .
The constraints from optical and X–ray emission lines imply that all three objects are Compton-thin .
For the two fainter objects , the reddening deduced from the optical broad emission lines in one of them , and the optical continuum in the other , are similar to those expected from the X–ray absorption , if we assume a Galactic gas-to-dust ratio and reddening curve .
The broad line region Balmer decrement of our brightest object is larger than expected from its X–ray absorption , which can be explained either by an intrinsic Balmer decrement with standard gas-to-dust ratio , or by a > Galactic gas-to-dust ratio .
These \geq Galactic ratios of extinction to photoelectric absorption can not extend to the high redshift , high luminosity , broad line AGN in our sample , because they have column densities > 10 ^ { 22 } cm ^ { -2 } , and so their broad line regions would be totally obscured .
This means that some effect ( e.g. , luminosity dependence , or evolution ) needs to be present in order to explain the whole population of absorbed AGN .