diff --git a/app/api/base.rb b/app/api/base.rb
index f2b45f05..eb87ad7f 100644
--- a/app/api/base.rb
+++ b/app/api/base.rb
@@ -3,7 +3,12 @@
 
 module API
   # Main base class that defines all API versions
-  class Base < Grape::API
+class Base < Grape::API
+    # Normalize ActiveRecord not-found errors to a stable API message
+    rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound do |e|
+      model = e.respond_to?(:model) && e.model ? e.model : 'Resource'
+      error!({ errors: ["#{model} not found"] }, 404)
+    end
     insert_after Grape::Middleware::Formatter, Grape::Middleware::Logger, {
       logger: MR.logger,
       filter: Class.new do
diff --git a/spec/api/v1/publish_spec.rb b/spec/api/v1/publish_spec.rb
index 6d0e7472..11b317e9 100644
--- a/spec/api/v1/publish_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/api/v1/publish_spec.rb
@@ -706,10 +706,7 @@
         it 'returns 404' do
           transfer_ownership
           expect_status(:not_found)
-          expect_json(
-            'errors.0',
-            "Couldn't find Organization with 'id'=#{new_organization_id}"
-          )
+          expect_json('errors.0', 'Organization not found')
         end
       end