diff --git a/bigquery/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryMetastoreCatalog.java b/bigquery/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryMetastoreCatalog.java
index 4c60d8783da2..c862244826e8 100644
--- a/bigquery/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryMetastoreCatalog.java
+++ b/bigquery/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryMetastoreCatalog.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 import org.apache.iceberg.catalog.TableIdentifier;
 import org.apache.iceberg.exceptions.NoSuchNamespaceException;
 import org.apache.iceberg.exceptions.NoSuchTableException;
+import org.apache.iceberg.exceptions.NotFoundException;
 import org.apache.iceberg.hadoop.Configurable;
 import org.apache.iceberg.io.CloseableGroup;
 import org.apache.iceberg.io.FileIO;
@@ -183,7 +184,17 @@ public List<TableIdentifier> listTables(Namespace namespace) {
   public boolean dropTable(TableIdentifier identifier, boolean purge) {
     try {
       TableOperations ops = newTableOps(identifier);
-      TableMetadata lastMetadata = ops.current();
+      TableMetadata lastMetadata = null;
+      if (purge) {
+        try {
+          lastMetadata = ops.current();
+        } catch (NotFoundException e) {
+          LOG.warn(
+              "Failed to load table metadata for table: {}, continuing drop without purge",
+              identifier,
+              e);
+        }
+      }
 
       client.delete(toTableReference(identifier));
 
diff --git a/bigquery/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/TestBigQueryTableOperations.java b/bigquery/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/TestBigQueryTableOperations.java
index c5095aedb000..bc69d7e8c27d 100644
--- a/bigquery/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/TestBigQueryTableOperations.java
+++ b/bigquery/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/TestBigQueryTableOperations.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.any;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.never;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.reset;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.times;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
@@ -244,6 +245,29 @@ public void createTableCommitSucceeds() throws Exception {
     assertThat(loadedTable.schema().asStruct()).isEqualTo(SCHEMA.asStruct());
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void dropTableWithoutPurgeDoesNotLoadMetadata() {
+    catalog.dropTable(IDENTIFIER, false);
+
+    // A plain drop must not trigger a tables.get on BigQuery, since the metadata is only needed for
+    // purge.
+    verify(client, never()).load(TABLE_REFERENCE);
+    verify(client, times(1)).delete(TABLE_REFERENCE);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void dropTableWithPurgeLoadsMetadata() throws Exception {
+    Table createdTable = createTestTable();
+    reset(client);
+    when(client.load(TABLE_REFERENCE)).thenReturn(createdTable);
+
+    catalog.dropTable(IDENTIFIER, true);
+
+    // Purge needs the current metadata to delete the table's data files, so it must load it.
+    verify(client, times(1)).load(TABLE_REFERENCE);
+    verify(client, times(1)).delete(TABLE_REFERENCE);
+  }
+
   /** Creates a test table to have Iceberg metadata files in place. */
   private Table createTestTable() throws Exception {
     when(client.load(TABLE_REFERENCE))