2003-2005 INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton observations of 3C 273

Aims. The aim of this paper is to study the evolution of the broadband spectrum of one of the brightest and nearest quasars 3C 273. Methods. We analyze the data obtained during quasi-simultaneous INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton monitoring of the blazar 3C 273 in 2003-2005 in the UV, X-ray and soft gamma-ray bands and study the results in the context of the long-term evolution of the source. Results. The 0.2-100 keV spectrum of the source is well fitted by a combination of a soft cut-of power law and a hard power law. No improvement of the fit is achieved if one replaces the soft cut-of power law by either a blackbody, or a disk reflection model. During the observation period the source has reached the historically softest state in the hard X-ray domain with a photon index Gamma = 1.82 +/- 0.01. Comparing our data with available archived X-ray data from previous years, we find a secular evolution of the source toward softer X-ray emission (the photon index has increased by. Delta Gamma similar or equal to 0.3-0.4 over the last thirty years). We argue that existing theoretical models have to be significantly modified to account for the observed spectral evolution of the source.