Harold Simmons, a Dallas investor, recently increased his investment in Lockheed.

"We immediately liked each other," said Mr. Simmons, a well-known Dallas investor.

Dallas investor and developer Timothy Headington stepped up with the estimated $270,000 needed to preserve and store the artwork.

Earnings were held down by the $15 million cost of defending against a proxy challenge waged by Harold C. Simmons, the Dallas investor.

After a tough proxy battle last year with Harold C. Simmons, the Dallas investor, Lockheed's management said it would do more for investors.

He believed, in the words of Shad Rowe, a Dallas investor, that real estate was an "asset-appreciation game, not a cash-flow game."

Lockheed rejected a buyout proposal from Harold Simmons, the Dallas investor, because the plan involved too much debt.

Development of the area began in the mid-1960s, when a group of Dallas investors organized the Copano Land Company.

Yet Duke Rudman, a Dallas investor in the business for 60 years, cautioned against snap judgments, saying there was no such thing as an unusual oil venture.

The possibility seems greater now that Mr. Simmons, a Dallas investor who owns nearly 20 percent of Lockheed, will mount another proxy fight this spring.