NEW YORK – A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking the return by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan of a Pablo Picasso masterpiece that a German Jewish businessman was allegedly forced to sell at a low price to fund an escape from the Nazis and fascism.

US District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan on Wednesday said the great-grandniece of Paul Leffmann, who once owned "The Actor," could not show under New York law that he sold the painting under "duress," justifying its return to her family.

The great-grandniece, Laurel Zuckerman, who oversees the estate of Leffmann's wife Alice, had alternatively sought more than $100 million of damages over "The Actor," from Picasso's Rose Period in 1904 and 1905.