diff --git a/src/caosdb/high_level_api.py b/src/caosdb/high_level_api.py
index 8d25df15236ffdbc445385eb6bd5872fa426074c..87c0fc28790c78eab58772f5acbf997532a4f880 100644
--- a/src/caosdb/high_level_api.py
+++ b/src/caosdb/high_level_api.py
@@ -606,7 +606,10 @@ class CaosDBPythonEntity(object):
         Deserialize a yaml representation of an entity in high level API form.
         """
 
-        entity = high_level_type_for_role(serialization["role"])()
+        if "role" in serialization:
+            entity = high_level_type_for_role(serialization["role"])()
+        else:
+            entity = CaosDBPythonRecord()
 
         for parent in serialization["parents"]:
             if "unresolved" in parent:
@@ -795,6 +798,18 @@ def _single_convert_to_python_object(robj: CaosDBPythonEntity,
 
     return robj
 
+def _convert_property_value(propval):
+    if isinstance(propval, CaosDBPythonUnresolvedReference):
+        propval = propval.id
+    elif isinstance(propval, CaosDBPythonEntity):
+        propval = _single_convert_to_entity(
+            standard_type_for_high_level_type(propval)(), propval)
+    elif isinstance(propval, list):
+        propval = [_convert_property_value(element) for element in propval]
+
+    # TODO: test case for list missing
+    
+    return propval
 
 def _single_convert_to_entity(entity: db.Entity,
                               robj: CaosDBPythonEntity):
@@ -833,15 +848,7 @@ def _single_convert_to_entity(entity: db.Entity,
         propval = robj.__getattribute__(prop)
         metadata = robj.get_property_metadata(prop)
 
-        if isinstance(propval, CaosDBPythonUnresolvedReference):
-            propval = propval.id
-        elif isinstance(propval, CaosDBPythonEntity):
-            propval = _single_convert_to_entity(
-                standard_type_for_high_level_type(propval)(), propval)
-        elif isinstance(propval, list):
-            # propval = []
-            if not isinstance(propval[0], int):
-                raise NotImplementedError()
+        propval = _convert_property_value(propval)
         
         entity.add_property(
             name=prop,