diff --git a/modules/swagger-core/src/main/java/io/swagger/util/ModelDeserializer.java b/modules/swagger-core/src/main/java/io/swagger/util/ModelDeserializer.java
index 5483f14351..ab6075e1d8 100644
--- a/modules/swagger-core/src/main/java/io/swagger/util/ModelDeserializer.java
+++ b/modules/swagger-core/src/main/java/io/swagger/util/ModelDeserializer.java
@@ -51,8 +51,9 @@ public Model deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt)
             return model;
         } else {
             sub = node.get("type");
+            JsonNode items = node.get("items");
             Model model = null;
-            if (sub != null && "array".equals(((TextNode) sub).textValue())) {
+            if ((sub != null && "array".equals(((TextNode) sub).textValue())) || (items != null)){
                 model = Json.mapper().convertValue(node, ArrayModel.class);
             } else {
                 model = Json.mapper().convertValue(node, ModelImpl.class);
diff --git a/modules/swagger-core/src/test/java/io/swagger/deserialization/JsonDeserializationTest.java b/modules/swagger-core/src/test/java/io/swagger/deserialization/JsonDeserializationTest.java
index 0dd1b7758c..eb7bbafbba 100644
--- a/modules/swagger-core/src/test/java/io/swagger/deserialization/JsonDeserializationTest.java
+++ b/modules/swagger-core/src/test/java/io/swagger/deserialization/JsonDeserializationTest.java
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 
 import static org.testng.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.testng.Assert.assertTrue;
+import static org.testng.AssertJUnit.assertNotNull;
 
+import io.swagger.models.ArrayModel;
+import io.swagger.models.Model;
 import io.swagger.models.Swagger;
 import io.swagger.models.properties.ObjectProperty;
 import io.swagger.models.properties.MapProperty;
@@ -12,6 +15,7 @@
 import io.swagger.util.ResourceUtils;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import io.swagger.util.Yaml;
 import org.testng.annotations.Test;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -117,4 +121,19 @@ public void testNestedUntypedProperty() throws IOException {
         assertTrue(additionalProperties instanceof UntypedProperty);
         assertEquals(additionalProperties.getDescription(), "map value");
     }
+
+    @Test(description = "it should deserialize an array untyped")
+    public void testArrayUntypedModel() throws IOException {
+        final String json = "{\n" +
+                "   \"description\":\"top level object\",\n" +
+                "   \"items\":{}" +
+                "}";
+        final Model result = m.readValue(json, Model.class);
+        assertTrue(result instanceof ArrayModel);
+
+        final ArrayModel array = (ArrayModel) result;
+        assertEquals(array.getType(),"array");
+        assertEquals(array.getDescription(), "top level object");
+        assertNotNull(array.getItems());
+    }
 }