diff --git a/scripts/data_generators/connections/spark_rest/__init__.py b/scripts/data_generators/connections/spark_rest/__init__.py
index d36dc6991..4fc219f3e 100644
--- a/scripts/data_generators/connections/spark_rest/__init__.py
+++ b/scripts/data_generators/connections/spark_rest/__init__.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 import os
 
 CONNECTION_KEY = 'spark-rest'
-SPARK_RUNTIME_PATH = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..', '..', 'iceberg-spark-runtime-3.5_2.12-1.9.0.jar')
+SPARK_RUNTIME_PATH = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..', '..', 'iceberg-spark-runtime-4.0_2.13-1.10.0.jar')
 
 
 @IcebergConnection.register(CONNECTION_KEY)
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ def __init__(self):
 
     def get_connection(self):
         os.environ["PYSPARK_SUBMIT_ARGS"] = (
-            "--packages org.apache.iceberg:iceberg-spark-runtime-3.5_2.12:1.9.0,org.apache.iceberg:iceberg-aws-bundle:1.9.0 pyspark-shell"
+            "--packages org.apache.iceberg:iceberg-spark-runtime-4.0_2.13:1.10.0,org.apache.iceberg:iceberg-aws-bundle:1.10.0 pyspark-shell"
         )
         os.environ["AWS_REGION"] = "us-east-1"
         os.environ["AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"] = "admin"
diff --git a/scripts/data_generators/iceberg-spark-runtime-4.0_2.13-1.10.0.jar b/scripts/data_generators/iceberg-spark-runtime-4.0_2.13-1.10.0.jar
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3b495f028
Binary files /dev/null and b/scripts/data_generators/iceberg-spark-runtime-4.0_2.13-1.10.0.jar differ
diff --git a/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/__init__.py b/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..136535f62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+from scripts.data_generators.tests.base import IcebergTest
+import pathlib
+import tempfile
+import duckdb
+
+
+@IcebergTest.register()
+class Test(IcebergTest):
+    def __init__(self):
+        path = pathlib.PurePath(__file__)
+        super().__init__(path.parent.name)
+
+        # Create a temporary directory
+        self.tempdir = pathlib.Path(tempfile.mkdtemp())
+        self.parquet_file = self.tempdir / "tmp.parquet"
+
+        duckdb_con = duckdb.connect()
+        duckdb_con.execute(f"copy (select * from range(100) t(col)) to '{self.parquet_file}' (FORMAT PARQUET)")
+
+    def setup(self, con):
+        con.con.read.parquet(self.parquet_file.as_posix()).createOrReplaceTempView('parquet_file_view')
diff --git a/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/q00.sql b/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/q00.sql
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7e5555ffc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/q00.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+CREATE or REPLACE TABLE default.variant_column
+TBLPROPERTIES (
+	'format-version'='3',
+	'write.update.mode'='copy-on-write'
+)
+AS SELECT col::VARIANT FROM parquet_file_view t(col);
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/q01.sql b/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/q01.sql
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d68952d5b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/data_generators/tests/variant_column/q01.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+INSERT INTO default.variant_column VALUES
+	(-123::VARIANT),
+	(123::VARIANT),
+	(256::VARIANT);
diff --git a/scripts/requirements.txt b/scripts/requirements.txt
index de8806b13..4343bb7be 100644
--- a/scripts/requirements.txt
+++ b/scripts/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-pyspark==3.5.0
+pyspark==4.0.1
 duckdb
 pyiceberg
 pyarrow
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/metadata/iceberg_column_definition.cpp b/src/metadata/iceberg_column_definition.cpp
index 5dcf898af..e7e042e24 100644
--- a/src/metadata/iceberg_column_definition.cpp
+++ b/src/metadata/iceberg_column_definition.cpp
@@ -164,6 +164,9 @@ LogicalType IcebergColumnDefinition::ParsePrimitiveTypeString(const string &type
 		auto scale = std::stoi(digits[1]);
 		return LogicalType::DECIMAL(width, scale);
 	}
+	if (type_str == "variant") {
+		return LogicalType::JSON();
+	}
 	throw InvalidConfigurationException("Unrecognized primitive type: %s", type_str);
 }
 
diff --git a/test/sql/local/irc/test_basic_variant.test b/test/sql/local/irc/test_basic_variant.test
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..03d1e0cee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/sql/local/irc/test_basic_variant.test
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+# name: test/sql/local/irc/test_basic_variant.test
+# description: test variant reading capabilities
+# group: [irc]
+
+require-env ICEBERG_SERVER_AVAILABLE
+
+require avro
+
+require parquet
+
+require iceberg
+
+require httpfs
+
+require aws
+
+# Do not ignore 'HTTP' error messages!
+set ignore_error_messages
+
+statement ok
+CREATE SECRET local_catalog_secret (
+    TYPE S3,
+    KEY_ID 'admin',
+    SECRET 'password',
+    ENDPOINT '127.0.0.1:9000',
+    URL_STYLE 'path',
+    USE_SSL 0
+);
+
+statement ok
+ATTACH '' AS my_datalake (
+    TYPE ICEBERG,
+    CLIENT_ID 'admin',
+    CLIENT_SECRET 'password',
+    ENDPOINT 'http://127.0.0.1:8181'
+);
+
+statement ok
+use my_datalake.default;
+
+query I
+select count(*) from my_datalake.default.variant_column ;
+----
+103
+
+query I rowsort expected_res
+select * from range(100) UNION ALL VALUES (-123), (123), (256)
+
+query I rowsort expected_res
+select * from my_datalake.default.variant_column;
+----
+
+query I
+select count(*) from my_datalake.default.variant_column where col > 100
+----
+2