diff --git a/tiledb/core.cc b/tiledb/core.cc
index 98c0320cba..05887b3004 100644
--- a/tiledb/core.cc
+++ b/tiledb/core.cc
@@ -1524,6 +1524,14 @@ class PyQuery {
         for (auto& buffer_name : buffers_order_) {
             BufferInfo& buffer_info = buffers_.at(buffer_name);
 
+            // Convert validity to bitmap BEFORE creating BufferHolder
+            int64_t null_count = 0;
+            if (is_nullable(buffer_name)) {
+                null_count = count_zeros(buffer_info.validity);
+                buffer_info.validity = uint8_bool_to_uint8_bitmap(
+                    buffer_info.validity);
+            }
+
             auto buffer_holder = new BufferHolder(
                 buffer_info.data, buffer_info.validity, buffer_info.offsets);
 
@@ -1538,11 +1546,7 @@ class PyQuery {
                 buffer_holder);
 
             if (is_nullable(buffer_name)) {
-                // count zeros before converting to bitmap
-                c_pa_array.null_count = count_zeros(buffer_info.validity);
-                // convert to bitmap
-                buffer_info.validity = uint8_bool_to_uint8_bitmap(
-                    buffer_info.validity);
+                c_pa_array.null_count = null_count;
                 c_pa_array.buffers[0] = buffer_info.validity.data();
                 c_pa_array.n_buffers = is_var(buffer_name) ? 3 : 2;
                 c_pa_schema.flags |= ARROW_FLAG_NULLABLE;
diff --git a/tiledb/tests/test_core.py b/tiledb/tests/test_core.py
index f25ff466b7..b236a0f879 100644
--- a/tiledb/tests/test_core.py
+++ b/tiledb/tests/test_core.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import random
 
 import numpy as np
+import pytest
 from numpy.testing import assert_array_equal
 
 import tiledb
@@ -157,3 +158,32 @@ def test_import_buffer(self):
             self.assertTrue("foo" in r)
             self.assertTrue("str" not in r)
             del q
+
+    def test_nullable_arrow_buffer(self):
+        # BufferHolder must hold reference to converted bitmap, not original.
+        # Corrupted validity buffer causes wrong null positions in .to_pandas().
+        pytest.importorskip("pandas")
+        pyarrow = pytest.importorskip("pyarrow")
+
+        def _read_arrow(uri):
+            with tiledb.open(uri, "r") as A:
+                q = core.PyQuery(A.ctx, A, ("a",), (), 0, True)
+                sub = tiledb.Subarray(A)
+                sub.add_dim_range(0, (0, 4))
+                q.set_subarray(sub)
+                q.submit()
+                return q._buffers_to_pa_table()
+
+        uri = self.path("test_nullable_arrow_buffer")
+        dom = tiledb.Domain(tiledb.Dim("d", domain=(0, 4), tile=1, dtype=np.uint64))
+        attr = tiledb.Attr("a", dtype="ascii", var=True, nullable=True)
+        tiledb.Array.create(
+            uri, tiledb.ArraySchema(domain=dom, attrs=[attr], sparse=True)
+        )
+
+        with tiledb.open(uri, "w") as A:
+            A[np.arange(5)] = {"a": pyarrow.array(["x", "y", None, None, ""])}
+
+        df = _read_arrow(uri).to_pandas()
+
+        assert df["a"].isna().tolist() == [False, False, True, True, False]