diff --git a/app/controllers/objects_controller.rb b/app/controllers/objects_controller.rb
index 405c574c7b..97cc3ebf74 100644
--- a/app/controllers/objects_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/objects_controller.rb
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ class ObjectsController < ApplicationController
     render status: 409, plain: e.message, location: object_location(e.pid)
   end
 
+  rescue_from(DublinCoreService::CrosswalkError) do |e|
+    render status: 400, plain: e.message
+  end
+
   # Register new objects in DOR
   def create
     Rails.logger.info(params.inspect)
diff --git a/spec/controllers/objects_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/objects_controller_spec.rb
index ce528f32b2..27e15a494b 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/objects_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/objects_controller_spec.rb
@@ -53,11 +53,22 @@
   end
 
   describe '/publish' do
-    it 'calls publish metadata' do
+    it 'calls PublishMetadataService and returns 201' do
       expect(PublishMetadataService).to receive(:publish).with(item)
       post :publish, params: { id: item.pid }
       expect(response.status).to eq(201)
     end
+
+    context 'with bad metadata' do
+      let(:error_message) { "DublinCoreService#ng_xml produced incorrect xml (no children):\n<xml/>" }
+
+      it 'returns a 400 error' do
+        allow(PublishMetadataService).to receive(:publish).and_raise(DublinCoreService::CrosswalkError, error_message)
+        post :publish, params: { id: item.pid }
+        expect(response.status).to eq(400)
+        expect(response.body).to eq(error_message)
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   describe '/update_marc_record' do