diff --git a/kork-artifacts/src/main/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/kork/artifacts/artifactstore/s3/S3ArtifactStore.java b/kork-artifacts/src/main/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/kork/artifacts/artifactstore/s3/S3ArtifactStore.java
index 88532c0fe..307c0038a 100644
--- a/kork-artifacts/src/main/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/kork/artifacts/artifactstore/s3/S3ArtifactStore.java
+++ b/kork-artifacts/src/main/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/kork/artifacts/artifactstore/s3/S3ArtifactStore.java
@@ -88,7 +88,19 @@ public Artifact store(Artifact artifact) {
     if (applicationsRegex != null && !Pattern.matches(applicationsRegex, application)) {
       return artifact;
     }
-
+    byte[] referenceBytes;
+    try {
+      referenceBytes = getReferenceAsBytes(artifact);
+    } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
+      // When this occurs, that means we've run into an embedded/base64 artifact
+      // that does not contain base64 in its reference. This can happen a couple
+      // of ways with using SpEL within an artifact, manipulating the pipeline
+      // JSON directly, etc. So instead of trying to evaluate SpEL here or
+      // failing, we will just return the raw artifact, and not store this
+      // particular one.
+      log.warn("Artifact cannot be stored due to reference not being base64 encoded");
+      return artifact;
+    }
     String ref = uriBuilder.buildArtifactURI(application, artifact);
     Artifact remoteArtifact =
         artifact.toBuilder().type(ArtifactTypes.REMOTE_BASE64.getMimeType()).reference(ref).build();
@@ -108,7 +120,7 @@ public Artifact store(Artifact artifact) {
             .tagging(Tagging.builder().tagSet(accountTag).build())
             .build();
 
-    s3Client.putObject(request, RequestBody.fromBytes(getReferenceAsBytes(artifact)));
+    s3Client.putObject(request, RequestBody.fromBytes(referenceBytes));
     return remoteArtifact;
   }
 
diff --git a/kork-artifacts/src/test/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/kork/artifacts/artifactstore/s3/S3ArtifactStorerTest.java b/kork-artifacts/src/test/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/kork/artifacts/artifactstore/s3/S3ArtifactStorerTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..17072804d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kork-artifacts/src/test/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/kork/artifacts/artifactstore/s3/S3ArtifactStorerTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2023 Apple Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package com.netflix.spinnaker.kork.artifacts.artifactstore.s3;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+
+import com.netflix.spinnaker.kork.artifacts.ArtifactTypes;
+import com.netflix.spinnaker.kork.artifacts.artifactstore.ArtifactStoreURISHA256Builder;
+import com.netflix.spinnaker.kork.artifacts.model.Artifact;
+import com.netflix.spinnaker.security.AuthenticatedRequest;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import software.amazon.awssdk.services.s3.S3Client;
+
+public class S3ArtifactStorerTest {
+  @Test
+  public void testInvalidEmbeddedBase64StillSucceeds() {
+    S3Client client = mock(S3Client.class);
+    AuthenticatedRequest.setApplication("my-application");
+    S3ArtifactStore artifactStore =
+        new S3ArtifactStore(client, null, "my-bucket", new ArtifactStoreURISHA256Builder(), null);
+    String expectedReference = "${ #nonbase64spel() }";
+    Artifact artifact =
+        artifactStore.store(
+            Artifact.builder()
+                .type(ArtifactTypes.EMBEDDED_BASE64.getMimeType())
+                .reference(expectedReference)
+                .build());
+    assertEquals(expectedReference, artifact.getReference());
+    assertEquals(ArtifactTypes.EMBEDDED_BASE64.getMimeType(), artifact.getType());
+  }
+}