A Japanese maple tree that has been a focus of a recent controversy over a local apartment condominium was moved about 20 feet last week.

Developer Steven A. Cohen was granted a building permit by the Cambridge City Council in October to build a four-story complex at 33 Linnaean St.

But the site is currently home to an 1871 house and a garden that contains the giant red-leafed Japanese maple, believed to have been imported only a few years after the opening of Japan in 1861, when the first such trees were brought to North America.

This rare tree, described by Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry Elias J. Corey as "priceless," is the oldest of its species in the Northeast.

Standing 50 feet tall, it is a near-perfect specimen, according to Corey, who lives behind 33 Linnaean St. at Avon Hill.

Corey and other neighbors had protested Cohen's planned development before the City Council awarded him permission to build.

Cohen proposed moving the tree to another site on the property, although experts said they did not think the tree would survive the move.

Last week, Bartlett Tree Co. carefully dug up the tree by hand, had its roots bound in burlap and moved it to a corner of the backyard. Neighbors are waiting to see if the tree will indeed survive.

During the course of moving the tree, the company took a sample to figure out how old it is.

To everyone's surprise, the tree was found to be just 60 years old, and clearly was not brought over from Japan in the late 1800s.