diff --git a/Lib/_pyio.py b/Lib/_pyio.py
index 43c24342ad6162..0b6493bc8dc926 100644
--- a/Lib/_pyio.py
+++ b/Lib/_pyio.py
@@ -405,6 +405,16 @@ def close(self):
 
     def __del__(self):
         """Destructor.  Calls close()."""
+        try:
+            closed = self.closed
+        except Exception:
+            # If getting closed fails, then the object is probably
+            # in an unusable state, so ignore.
+            return
+
+        if closed:
+            return
+
         if _IOBASE_EMITS_UNRAISABLE:
             self.close()
         else:
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_io.py b/Lib/test/test_io.py
index 3a1f5ba5b6663d..55686d74398355 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_io.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_io.py
@@ -277,6 +277,10 @@ def readable(self):
     def seekable(self):
         return True
 
+    def seek(self, pos, whence=0):
+        # naive implementation, enough for tests
+        return 0
+
     def writable(self):
         return True
 
@@ -1486,6 +1490,9 @@ def test_misbehaved_io(self):
         self.assertRaises(OSError, bufio.seek, 0)
         self.assertRaises(OSError, bufio.tell)
 
+        # Silence destructor error
+        bufio.close = lambda: None
+
     def test_no_extraneous_read(self):
         # Issue #9550; when the raw IO object has satisfied the read request,
         # we should not issue any additional reads, otherwise it may block
@@ -1834,6 +1841,9 @@ def test_misbehaved_io(self):
         self.assertRaises(OSError, bufio.tell)
         self.assertRaises(OSError, bufio.write, b"abcdef")
 
+        # Silence destructor error
+        bufio.close = lambda: None
+
     def test_max_buffer_size_removal(self):
         with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
             self.tp(self.MockRawIO(), 8, 12)
@@ -2060,6 +2070,11 @@ def writer_close():
 
         # Silence destructor error
         writer.close = lambda: None
+        writer = None
+
+        with support.catch_unraisable_exception():
+            pair = None
+            support.gc_collect()
 
     def test_reader_writer_close_error_on_close(self):
         def reader_close():
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-06-11-01-54-19.bpo-18748.ADqCkq.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-06-11-01-54-19.bpo-18748.ADqCkq.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..295ddebb2a4015
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-06-11-01-54-19.bpo-18748.ADqCkq.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+:class:`_pyio.IOBase` destructor now does nothing if getting the ``closed``
+attribute fails to better mimick :class:`_io.IOBase` finalizer.