diff --git a/pynamodb/attributes.py b/pynamodb/attributes.py
index 964b5ae6..d054a0fb 100644
--- a/pynamodb/attributes.py
+++ b/pynamodb/attributes.py
@@ -424,7 +424,6 @@ def _container_deserialize(self, attribute_values: Dict[str, Dict[str, Any]]) ->
         """
         Sets attributes sent back from DynamoDB on this object
         """
-        self.attribute_values = {}
         self._set_discriminator()
         self._set_defaults(_user_instantiated=False)
         for name, attr in self.get_attributes().items():