The way things are going, the widely criticized Sparta Teapot Museum will never be built as planned. Already, its board has decided on a building half the original size because of fundraising problems. Turns out it might not have any teapots in it, either.

This summer the museum board and the wealthy California couple who offered to donate their vast collection to the start-up museum formally dissolved their agreement, which restricted both parties to dealing only with each other, board member Sandy Carter said last week. Sonny and Gloria Kamm can now shop around their teapots; in fact, they've told the Winston-Salem Journal they might withdraw entirely.

The teapots had been arriving in shipments from California in anticipation of the new museum. The Kamms and museum board members still hope some of them can find a home in Sparta, an economically depressed area that might have benefited from tourist dollars.

The museum now is likely to focus on regional exhibitions. Carter said the teapots might end up in a traveling exhibition such as the one that went to the N.C. Museum of Art last year. "The Artful Teapot" showed that the Kamms' collection consists of a surprising variety of art and craft, and has nothing in common with the china on your grandma's shelves.

The museum was criticized by conservative commentators as an outrageous example of pork-barrel spending because of the $1 million or so it had received in public money. Had it simply been called the Sparta Museum, it might not have attracted ridicule from across the country.

"We've certainly been a whipping boy for lots of talk," Carter said. "But every time there's bad publicity that gets more people interested in the museum."