diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5a35f9d763..bab44ceb63 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+- `opentelemetry-api`: Replace a broad exception in attribute cleaning tests to satisfy pylint in the `lint-opentelemetry-api` CI job
 - `opentelemetry-sdk`: Add `create_resource` and `create_propagator`/`configure_propagator` to declarative file configuration, enabling Resource and propagator instantiation from config files without reading env vars
   ([#4979](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4979))
 - `opentelemetry-sdk`: Map Python `CRITICAL` log level to OTel `FATAL` severity text per the specification
diff --git a/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/attributes/__init__.py b/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/attributes/__init__.py
index ad6dab5935..e7799a6963 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/attributes/__init__.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/attributes/__init__.py
@@ -37,6 +37,13 @@
 )
 
 
+# TODO: Remove this workaround and revert to the simpler implementation
+# once Python 3.9 support is dropped (planned around May 2026).
+# This exists only to avoid issues caused by deprecated behavior in 3.9.
+def _type_name(t):
+    return getattr(t, "__name__", getattr(t, "_name", repr(t)))
+
+
 _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
@@ -191,7 +198,7 @@ def _clean_extended_attribute_value(  # pylint: disable=too-many-branches
     except Exception:
         raise TypeError(
             f"Invalid type {type(value).__name__} for attribute value. "
-            f"Expected one of {[valid_type.__name__ for valid_type in _VALID_ANY_VALUE_TYPES]} or a "
+            f"Expected one of {[_type_name(valid_type) for valid_type in _VALID_ANY_VALUE_TYPES]} or a "
             "sequence of those types",
         )
 
diff --git a/opentelemetry-api/tests/attributes/test_attributes.py b/opentelemetry-api/tests/attributes/test_attributes.py
index 40d04fbe7d..ae3900ce9f 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-api/tests/attributes/test_attributes.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-api/tests/attributes/test_attributes.py
@@ -16,12 +16,14 @@
 
 import copy
 import unittest
+import unittest.mock
 from typing import MutableSequence
 
 from opentelemetry.attributes import (
     BoundedAttributes,
     _clean_attribute,
     _clean_extended_attribute,
+    _clean_extended_attribute_value,
 )
 
 
@@ -322,6 +324,14 @@ def __str__(self):
             "<DummyWSGIRequest method=GET path=/example/>", cleaned_value
         )
 
+    def test_invalid_anyvalue_type_raises_typeerror(self):
+        class BadStr:
+            def __str__(self):
+                raise RuntimeError("boom")
+
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            _clean_extended_attribute_value(BadStr(), None)
+
     def test_deepcopy(self):
         bdict = BoundedAttributes(4, self.base, immutable=False)
         bdict.dropped = 10